BLACK RIVER PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL EXPERIMENTS WITH MERIT PAY
HOLLAND, Mich. — Black River charter public school has set aside
$60,000 for merit-based bonuses next year. These awards will be
granted to groups of teachers who meet certain achievement goals,
according to The Grand Rapids Press.

The Black River model for merit pay is considered unique because
its goals are based on achieving academic goals that are set and
assessed by teams of teachers. Merit pay in public schools is
usually determined by parent satisfaction surveys, an increase in
enrollment or standardized test scores, The Press reported.

One team consists of fine arts teachers who may set goals like
increasing the number of public performances, attracting more
students to the theater program and better integration of music
and art education. Teams that meet their goals will receive
bonuses of up to 3 percent of each teacher's salary. The team
leader will receive twice as much, according to The Press.

Forms of merit pay are uncommon in conventional public school
districts because the teachers' union opposes it, believing
"merit" is hard to determine, The Press reported. Charter public
school educators are often paid slightly less than teachers in
conventional public schools, but it is common for charters to
offer merit pay because the schools are usually more flexible
without a union presence, The Press reported.

"We wanted to provide an incentive to reward and retain excellent
teachers," Dave Angerer, Black River's head of school, told The
Press.

SUPREME COURT RULES AGAINST RACE-BASED SCHOOL ASSIGNMENTS
DETROIT — The U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to reject plans
established in Seattle and Louisville, Ky., to use race as a
determining factor when assigning students to schools, according
to The Detroit News.

The court's ruling may affect plans, like busing students across
district boundaries, used to desegregate schools. Proponents of
these desegregation plans say the decision is only promoting a
re-segregation of schools and ignoring precedents set by Brown v.
Board of Education, The News reported.

"The intention of the U.S. Supreme Court is to end all the hard-fought progress toward integration we have made," Shanta Driver,
national spokeswoman for the civil rights group BAMN, or By Any
Means Necessary, told The News. "They will not succeed."

Michigan has been grounds for many recent debates over school
diversity policies. In 2003, a 5-4 decision by the court ruled
that the University of Michigan would have to stop using its
point-based affirmative action program for admissions, but could
still use certain tactics to increase racial diversity on campus.
In November 2006, voters passed Proposal 2, a constitutional
amendment to restrict the use of gender and race in college
admission policies, according to The News.

Some scholars argue that this may be the decision needed to truly
desegregate school districts.

"In the immediate wake of the Brown ruling, the NAACP and others
championed voluntary school-choice programs as a viable avenue
toward improved integration," Andrew Coulson, director of the
Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom wrote in a column
appearing in the New York Post. "Many civil-rights leaders have
forgotten choice in the half-century since, but it has retained
the interest of scholars and activists. And their verdict is in:
Choice works."

The ruling should not affect many, if any, school districts in
Michigan because of the widespread use of the Schools of Choice
program. Betty Robinson, a parent of two children in Southfield
Public Schools said the court ruling doesn't mean much because
students are not required to attend the school to which they are
assigned, The News reported.

"Things have changed so drastically since Brown v. Board of
Education," Robinson told The News. "Oakland County has open
enrollment."

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said, "The
way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop
discrimination on the basis of race," according to The News.

Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "The Impact of Limited School
Choice on Public School Districts," July 24, 2000
http://www.mackinac.org/2962

SAGINAW SCHOOL DISTRICT STRUGGLES TO KEEP STUDENTS
SAGINAW, Mich. — The Saginaw School District is attempting to
alleviate an $8 million budget deficit, but is facing more
difficulty as it sees hundreds of its students leave each year,
according to The Saginaw News.

Parents are seeking alternatives to Saginaw schools as the
district considers cutting programs and 120 jobs, including
almost 60 teachers. The district also will have to borrow $17.5
million to cover expenses until it receives its first state
payment of the fiscal year in October, The News reported.

"When (districts) lose services, it makes them less attractive,"
Sharif Shakrani, co-director of MSU's Educational Policy Center
told The News. "The first opportunity (people) have to go to
another district, they will. When you need them the most, they
are available the least."

The schools are anticipating a drop in enrollment of 600 students
and plans to solicit parents through phone calls and post signs
around neighborhoods. Saginaw Board of Education President Norman
Braddock thinks the district needs to examine the reasons why
parents are taking their children elsewhere.

"Is it because of us, or is there some other factor?" Braddock
said, according to The News. "If it's us, we have to figure out
what we have to do to keep them."

PINCKNEY SCHOOLS SEE SAVINGS FROM INSURANCE SWITCH
PINCKNEY, Mich. — The Pinckney Community Schools have settled on
a $37.4 million budget for the 2007-2008 school year that
includes no raises for staff, but also cuts no positions because
of savings from its health insurance coverage, according to the
Livingston Daily Press & Argus.

Last year, 97 percent of district teachers voted in favor of
switching health plans from one administered by the Michigan
Education Special Services Association to one purchased from Blue
Cross Blue Shield, according to Michigan Education Digest. MESSA
is a third-party administrator affiliated with the Michigan
Education Association school employees union. The schools are
seeing a decrease of 3.72 percent in premiums and have saved
between $700,000 and $800,000, the Daily Press & Argus reported.

SENATE VOTES TO REQUIRE UNIFORM CALENDAR FOR SCHOOL DISTRICTS
LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Senate passed legislation that
would require all school districts in the same intermediate
school district to have uniform school calendars over at least a
five year period, according to The Detroit News.

The bill's chief sponsor, Sen. Ron Jelinek, hopes that this would
help save costs for districts as well as increase convenience for
families with students in different districts, The News reported.

"Families who have multiple children attending different schools
in the district, either full-or part-time, will benefit from
having the same vacation schedules at all of the schools,"
Jelinek told The News. "(Intermediate school districts) that have
students attending programs from multiple schools have found the
different breaks are disruptive to the learning process because
half the students are on vacation one week, and the next week the
other half are gone."

Proponents of service consolidation support this legislation
because it may make it easier for districts to share busing and
food services. Opponents argue that this may remove the
flexibility of individual school districts to implement their own
cost-saving measures. The bill will now move to the House for a
vote, according to The News.

MICHIGAN EDUCATION DIGEST is a service of Michigan Education
Report (http://www.educationreport.org),
a quarterly newspaper
published by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy
(http://www.mackinac.org),
a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan
research and educational institute.